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Drawing on new empirical research conducted in East London as part of a project on ‘the Bengal diaspora’, this lecture explores the struggle over Bangladeshi identity in Tower Hamlets as exemplified in the monument of the Shahid Minar and the related celebration of Ekushe (Martyr’s Memorial Day), which is usually held to mark the beginning of the Bangladesh national liberation struggle. Bringing together theories of diaspora consciousness and memorialisation, the paper explores the ways in which rituals and memory work both as a form of continuity with the homeland and as a method of claims-staking for minority groups in multicultural spaces.